


Little Red Lies Case#6 - Part 4

by Geelady



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-18
Updated: 2012-02-18
Packaged: 2017-10-31 09:51:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/342670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geelady/pseuds/Geelady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The trial and the tribulations...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Red Lies Case#6 - Part 4

LITTLE RED LIES Part 4  
Author: G. Waldo  
Rating: Case-fic’. Some angst. Mentions of violence. Hurt-comfort. Light humour, and of course Jane-pain. Characters: Jane/Lisbon friendship; Jane/Cho  
Summary: The trial and the tribulations...  
Disclaimer: Not mine though I wish he was.  
CBI  
Sorry this is more than a week overdue. Got sick on my birthday weekend and slept most of the time. So now I am off for the day but YOU stay home and read! :D  
CBI

Selby nodded thoughtfully. “I can understand that, Agent Lisbon. Mister Jane has come to be a member of the team and a team can be like a family. But about this Red John character – Mister Jane has been tracking him for years – with the CBI’s help. Is that correct?” While she waited for Lisbon to answer, Selby gathered a pad of notes from her desk.

“Until recently, yes. The case is currently being overseen by the FBI under Agent Darcy.”

“For those on the jury who are unfamiliar with the Red John cases, or with Red John himself, would you please describe for us in some detail the nature of Mister Jane’s connection to the Red John cases and to Red John as well?”

Lisbon stole a glance at Jane, cleared her throat and swallowed. “Yes, um,...Red John murdered Mister Jane’s family, his wife and daughter, and Jane has been hunting Red John ever since, with the CBI’s help when appropriate.”

“The CBI’s help? The case was assigned to your office?”

“Yes, for several years.”

“But now it is not so?”

“No, a year ago the cases were reassigned to the FBI under Agent Darcy.”

“When the CBI did have the Red John files, in your opinion as his supervisor how did working on those cases affect Mister Jane? How did he handle the pressures - or the disappointments - since your team failed to capture Red John?”

“Well, for the most part.”

“Well?? How so since Mister Jane murdered Red John –or thought he did - in a mall in front of dozens of people and against I can only assume was your explicit orders not to confront Red John himself but to allow law enforcement to take him into custody?”

“Jane did not expect to encounter Red John – we had hoped he would show but as far as we understood, as far as Jane understood, Red John was a no-show, until it was discovered that Timothy Carter’s phone was the last number dialled from Agent McLaughlin’s cell phone. I made that call myself.”

“Agent McLaughlin was the agent who shot you?”

“Yes. We had just discovered him to be an accomplice of Red John.”

Williams stood. “Your Honour, is this trial about Joshua Neil or Timothy Carter? The Timothy Carter case has been closed for over a year, or is Ms. Selby aware of something we aren’t?”

Selby spoke to Judge Gilpin. “In order to understand a clear picture of Mister Jane’s normal state of mine, Your Honour, I must allow the jury at least some access to his work and life history. This will speak to his unstable motivations in shooting Joshua Neil.”

“Granted but I caution you that you are on the State’s clock. Don’t let this get bigger than it needs to be.” Gilpin advised.

“Certainly Your Honour.” 

Selby addressed Lisbon. “As to your last statement - Agent McLaughlin was discovered to be a Red John accomplice, but almost too late. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“At the time were you also aware that Jane was about to confront Red John on his own without any protection?”

“I wasn’t sure. I was wounded and Jane hung up his phone. After that, no matter how many times I called, he didn’t answer.”

“What did that indicate to you?”

“That perhaps he was in trouble.”

“Did it not also cross your mind that perhaps Mister Jane did not want the CBI’s help in finally confronting the man he at the time believed to be Red John, or that he wished to confront Red John on his own?”

“Well, yes.”

“Did Patrick Jane not say as much to you on several occasions? – that he wanted his revenge and would not tolerate Red John simply being taken into custody, but that he wanted Red John dead?”

“Yes, not in those words but –“

“- but it was in those words, Agent Lisbon, wasn’t it?” Selby turned to the notes in her hands. “Things are often overheard in offices where people work in close knit groups. Did Mister Jane not say these words to you on at least one occasion and I am paraphrasing – “I will cut him open and watch him bleed until he is dead. I will have my revenge.” Is that not correct?”

It was clear Selby had lead the conversation to this with the intent on showing the jury, and everyone else, that over the years Jane’s state of mind had been deteriorating. Jane’s entire mental state was about to be blown wide open. “He said...something like that, yes.”

“Did Mister Jane not in fact have these long-range plans to confront the serial killer who murdered his family, and to do such on his own? A pretty dangerous decision for a man who carried no weapon, was not properly trained in their use, nor possessing any knowledge of self defence. Did Mister Jane really expect to survive this encounter with a seasoned murderer wherever or however that encounter might take place?”

“Well, Jane did survive the encounter at the theatre – “

Selby turned away from Lisbon to speak to the jury. “To clarify for the members of the jury, three film students had Mister Jane bound, and were ready to murder him to complete their own sick film project. Red John appeared on the scene and shot to death two of them and wounded a third. But he did not shoot Mister Jane. Why Red John chose at that time not to kill him we can only speculate.”

Selby asked Lisbon. “I’m asking you about the wisdom of his decision, Agent Lisbon. Had this always been Mister Jane’s intent from the beginning; since joining the CBI: Did he wish to kill Red John himself? Was that his wish?”

“Yes. But I believe his years with the Bureau would have prevent-“

“- but his years with the CBI did not prevent it, did it, Agent Lisbon? Mister Jane gunned down Timothy Carter seemingly without a second thought.”

Lisbon was beginning to wonder if Selby was on Jane’s side or the prosecution’s. “He shot him, yes.”

“Because he believed Timothy Carter was Red John.”

“Yes.”

Williams smiled to himself, idly delighted that Selby appeared to making his own case for him. He could do no worse than let her keep questioning Agent Lisbon.

“During his years working under your supervision, have you ever, Agent Lisbon, observed behaviour from Patrick that might suggest to you that he was not in his right mind?” Selby raised a finger to Williams to let him know she understood the question encased the potential for her colleague to request overrule from Judge Gilpin. “Stating your observations only please, I am not asking that you draw conclusions as to his state of mind – simply whatever things and situations that you have observed as his supervisor and friend - the facts if you will.”

Lisbon wondered what specific time she should talk about. To her, most of Jane’s antics were related, not to his state of mind, but to his methods for gathering information and rendering an experienced opinion on who the guilty party might be – and his antics following that again being in fact his methods (however odd they may appear to outsiders), to help bring the guilty parties to justice. None of it to her smacked of insanity. “Jane is an unusual man. His background, the way he thinks, his uncanny ability to read people – and I don’t mean minds – but body language, facial expression, tics, whatever you want to call them – Jane has never – “

“Agent Lisbon I understand your desire to protect the reputation of your friend, but Jane’s on-the-job hands-on methods if you will is not what I asked you. Perhaps I phrased the question poorly. Have you ever directly observed anything that would suggest to you or anyone that Patrick Jane was not in his right mind?”

Lisbon desperately tried to find something that would lend support to Selby’s plea of temporary insanity, racking her brain to come up with a situation or time that would clearly show Jane’s thinking had been serious skewed or his actions those of an man not in complete control of his faculties – something recent – but she couldn’t. “No–I...um, no Ms. Selby, I would have to say no.” Lisbon wished she could take the woman aside ask her what the hell she was doing. Williams himself looked like the cat that swallowed the canary.

“Thank you Agent Lisbon.” Selby said and looked to her colleague. “Your witness, Mister Williams.”

Williams straightened his too-tight suit jacket on his thick frame and leaned against the witness stand podium very friendly-like. 

“Agent Lisbon, in this court room Mister Jane has been described as an unusual man. His history, how he was raised was also unusual. A man who’s methods of operation on the job may be...” He spread his hands friendly-like as well “...a bit unorthodox but never-the-less brilliant, and his record thus far other than a few minor infractions is excellent. He is in fact, according to his most recent performance evaluation, a major reason your departments solve-rate has risen by thirty-nine percent during the last three years. To his colleagues, co-workers and to your boss Mister Bertram, Patrick Jane is to all appearances a first class investigator. Would you agree with that assessment, Agent Lisbon?”

“Yes.”

“When Mister Jane maps out - if you’ll forgive the colloquialism - a bust for the team, have you observed any behaviour on Jane’s part that would suggest otherwise? That would suggest he was acting haphazardly – without forethought or direction? Was there any planned bust, any mapped-out, planned operation that in your mind stands out to you as a move that might be described as highly dangerous to himself or to others?”

“No, but not every bust goes according to plan. Things can go wrong.” 

“Things such as the behaviour of the suspect or the timing or any of dozens of unseen parts in any investigation that cannot be readily predicted?”

“Of course. No matter how good you are at your job, or at reading people or predicting what a person will do, there are always unknown factors.”

“Naturally. The world does not bow to our will, no matter how much we would like it to. So let me understand you, Agent Lisbon. During your four years working with him every day, side-by-side, has Mister Jane ever performed his job in a manner that you would describe as not normal – as an observer, and as his supervisor, have you ever seen him acting in a way that might be interpreted as insane?”

“There were times where I questioned his methods and the danger those methods sometimes brought to him...”

“And to the team, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yes, but we are trained for such situations.”

“Of course. Was Mister Jane at all disciplined for these situations?”

“Yes.” Lisbon was watching Jane watch his hands. During the last three days of testimony he had hardly looked up from the table. She did not think it was a sign that he was feeling defeated, but that he was feeling exposed, once again before the world, his very person and self questioned and doubted as to its validity and worth. “Just as any agent would be disciplined, but if you’re asking my opinion? I have never seen Jane deliberately act recklessly and he would not hurt anyone without cause.”

“Thank you Agent. No more questions.”

Lisbon was angry – “So the idea that Jane shot the man Joshua at all is ridiculous.”

“Thank you, that will be all, Agent Lisbon.”

“So however you want to interpret that – be my guest.” She finished. 

 

Williams smirked to himself. God bless the soothe-sayers.

CBI

“The prosecution recalls Doctor Jalak.”

The medical examiner took his seat and Williams leaned on the witness podium to speak to him. “Doctor, we have discussed the bullets recovered from the body, we have discussed the bullets found in the gun, we have discussed the fingerprints on the gun – those belonging to Patrick Jane - would you tell us now about the blood evidence. What blood evidence might there be to link Mister Patrick Jane to Joshua Neil? Is there any?”

The doctor read from his own report. “Yes, there is. The Medical Examiner’s Office recovered a smear of blood from the underside of the belt buckle belonging to the dead man, to Joshua Neil, and we ran a DNA analysis on it, comparing that result with a sample of Patrick Jane’s blood.”

“And what was your office’s expert judgement on that test?”

“Not only is the blood type the same but the two samples of DNA are identical. It was definitely Mister Jane’s blood on the belt buckle.”

“The belt-buckle of the belt worn by the dead man? The belt discovered on Joshua Neil’s body?”

“Yes.”

Williams turned to address the jury. “DNA evidence ladies and gentlemen - irrefutable evidence tying Patrick Jane to the dead man – to Joshua Neil. Jane, a man thus far described as, not a man out of his mind, but a man in control of his life and career, who had by his excellent work within the CBI increased the effectiveness of his agency’s close-rate. More cases solved because of him. Does this sound like the career of a mad man or a man who has temporarily lost his mind? No! Patrick Jane is, rather, a methodical, cunning man who makes no bones about his lust for revenge. I put it to you that Patrick Jane knew Joshua Neil and all the evidence thus far points to the clear fact that Patrick Jane also shot Joshua Neil down, killing him. 

“Now my esteemed colleague is about to get up here and sling her arrows about the question of why. Why would Jane kill this man, a complete stranger or so it has been claimed? Well, I’ll tell you why: because Patrick Jane had decided that Joshua Neil was either Red John or an accomplice of Red John. This Red John is quite the individual isn’t he? He appears to have accomplices everywhere; law enforcement, secretaries, FBI, the man is practically a Napoleon. I say again - the whys in Patrick Jane’s mind are simple. Jane had already shot a man he believed to be Red John, so it should be no stretch to believe he might make that same mistake twice. Patrick Jane see’s Red John accomplices everywhere. Ask yourselves - does that make him insane? A bit paranoid perhaps...” 

Williams took a deep breath as though the answer were so obvious a child would see it. “Patrick Jane is no crazy man, ladies and gentlemen. He was not insane, or temporarily insane, when he shot Joshua Neil, he was acting on his plan - his great plan for revenge. Patrick Jane in his daily working life may be a little unorthodox perhaps but he has also been described as a methodical, precise thinker, and a talented investigator – it’s been spoken of right here – you yourselves have heard it. 

“Patrick Jane murdered once when he shot down Timothy Carter in a shopping mall in front of hundreds of witnesses. And now again he has shot someone, only this time in secret - even hiding the body. Making mistakes for certain in leaving the gun behind, and not wearing gloves... but perhaps it was because this time he panicked. He realised this time he might not get away with murder. Because whatever else Patrick Jane is ladies and gentlemen, what he is most of all is a murderer.”

Lisbon wished she could apologise to Jane for all of it but instead she stayed in her seat, feeling sick to her stomach. Rigsby leaned over and spoke a reassuring platitude into her ear that she barely heard. She hoped that Selby had something more up her sleeve than making the prosecution’s case for them.

Judge Gilpin asked Selby “Counsellor, do you wish to cross?”

Selby remained in her seat. “No questions, your Honour. But I request a five minute recess to make a phone call?”

Judge Gilpin nodded, banging his gavel down once. “Granted and we’ll make it ten.”

He was no doubt as anxious for a coffee or pee-break as anyone else, Lisbon thought. She stood to stretch her legs and then followed Selby out into the hall, confronting her by the women’s bathroom. “Are you trying to help him or put him away?”

Selby frowned at the interruption. “Agent Lisbon, I’m on the phone.”

“And Jane’s about to go down as a nut-job.”

“Yee have little faith.” Selby turned away and spoke to the person on the other end for a moment, then closed the call. She looked at Lisbon. “My next witness is going to turn this show on his head, Agent Lisbon, and I need to prepare.”

“Who? What witness?”

“Sophie Miller.”

“Jane’s old psychiatrist? But she’s up on charges.”

“Not anymore - that’s what that call was about. I needed to ensure she is ready with her testimony – hence the call. Those charges by the way were instigated by some out-patient ex-cons she was treating at the same time Jane was under her care. They were crooks out for state cash and as it turns out their accusations didn’t hold any water. Therefore Sophie Miller is free to testify on his behalf.”

“And convince the jury that he’s nuts.”

“Only temporarily nuts Agent - be happy, this is good news. Miller’s testimony may save me from having to put Patrick on the stand.” 

CBI

Lisbon waved to Rigsby as she dialled the office. 

“CBI - Cho.”

“Hey. How’s it going?”

“We’ve got a double homicide in the core to check out. PD thinks they can handle it but want us in on the consult. I think they’re mistaking the team for Jane.”

Lisbon wanted to laugh but there just wasn’t any part of this that was funny. “All we can do is our best work.”

“How’s the trial going?” He asked.

“Pretty much as I expected. Jane’s mental state is about to be skewered by his psychiatrist.” Former psychiatrist she silently reminded herself. 

“We all know Jane’s not crazy, but it may be the only way to save him from becoming an old man in an eight-by-four cell.”

“I know.” Lisbon hated to think of Jane, a man who had spent his entire childhood travelling around and his whole adulthood thus far roaming wherever his heart took him, sitting in a cell with only his mind to keep him company. It was a cliché but Jane had always struck her as one of the freest spirits imaginable. He loved the outdoors and going to new places and doing new things on a whim, disappearing into the great big world without nary a word or a glance behind him. 

And the simplest things in life entertained him. Lisbon had once seen Jane dressed in his full suit, just for a quick bit of fun, climb onto a roundabout and spin like a goof until he was dizzy. Another time, during a lull in a horrific child murder case, he’d shed his jacket and vest to join a nearby softball pitch short a few players. Before long the whole team had joined in and for two hours one depressing afternoon they were suddenly having the time of their lives. 

At times it seemed as though life itself cried out to Jane - springing him from his self-imposed loneliness, if only for a few hours, and Jane answered that call whenever he could. The fresh and unpredictable Jane; in some ways he was still very much like a kid, running, laughing and bounding like a deer in a meadow. You don’t lock that kind of breathy soul in a prison. You don’t cage a gazelle. “Cho, I was wondering, are you and Jane okay?” 

Cho was silent for just a second. “What do you mean?”

Lisbon did not know what to say. Was Cho trying to tell her to mind her own business? “I mean, you and Jane seem...different lately. I suppose it’s none of my business but has something happened between you two?”

Another second’s pause, and then with a hint of confusion “No. We’re...good.” 

It sounded sincere. Normal. Neutral. It sounded Cho. “Okay, just asking. Are you coming to the trial tomorrow?”

“Once the interviews are done.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“Okay.”

Still perfectly Cho. Lisbon hung up.

CBI

THE NEXT DAY

“The Defence calls Doctor Sophie Miller to the stand.” Selby smiled slightly at her witness. “Please state your name and occupation for the record.”

“I am Doctor Sophie Lee Miller. I am a practicing psychiatrist with the Behavioral Health Department at the Manhattan Psychiatric Centre in New York.”

“And in particular what sort of mental health problems do people come to you for Doctor Miller?”

“There are several kinds of problems I help people deal with: depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bi-polar-ism, substance abuse, crises, psychoses...”

“Thank you, Doctor. Tell us – at one time Mister Jane was under your care, isn’t that right?”

“Yes. I was assigned to his case –“

“I’m sorry, Doctor, one moment. You were assigned?”

“Yes. Mister Jane became a patient at Greenlawn Psychiatric Facility in 2003. In his third week as a patient, I was assigned his case.”

“Why was that? I mean why only three weeks after Patrick Jane was admitted did you became his psychiatrist?”

“Despite the best efforts of the facility, Mister Jane had not responded to the standard treatments. As I was on staff as a consulting psychiatrist, they requested I take his case.”

“I see. And at that time, can you tell us in some detail your initial assessment of his mental state? What was wrong with Mister Jane?”

Miller looked over at her famous patient sitting quietly staring at his hands, recognizing the physical gesture, an outward sign that in him indicated depression. “Patrick Jane had experienced an extreme tragedy in his life-“

“-the murder of his wife of ten years and of their eight year old daughter.” Selby said.

“Yes.” Miller nodded. “And because of that Patrick was suffering from a debilitating post traumatic stress disorder termed Numbing-Avoidance. It is a mental/emotional reaction that causes the patient to withdraw mentally from his surroundings and to cease to feel emotion itself. It is basically a sudden onset of severe depression that is characterized by behaviors such as mental or emotional detachment – or both – also depression, guilt, ongoing grief reactions such as crying jags, fear, anxiety, insomnia, even amnesia, and sometimes all of it with little to no outward sign.”

“That’s quite a list. And do you recall which of these Patrick was suffering?”

“Well, all of them.”

“All of them?”

“Yes. In my observations of him I came to understand that Patrick was a patient who tended to feel things very deeply and so this trauma caused an extreme reaction in him. Regular psychiatric treatments were proving ineffective.”

“At what point in his first three weeks of treatment did they call you in? I mean they must have been treating him somehow?”

“The staff physicians had attempted talk therapy along with anti-anxiety medications to no avail.”

“I’m sure most of us here have heard of talk therapy at one point or another – but it was not working on Patrick at all?”

“No.” Miller looked out over the audience. “When I first met Patrick as my patient, he had not spoken a word for three weeks. When he tried to kill himself, that’s when they called me in.”

Selby made sure her expression was soulful and empathetic for her client, and stood so the jury could see her face, though she was in fact looking at her witness. “He tried to commit suicide?”

“Yes. It was what we in the medical profession call a cry for help, though it was in itself unusual.”

“How so?”

“Patrick had cut up his forearms and spread the blood on the wall. He made a smiling-face on the wall using his own blood.”

Selby looked suitably horrified. “He painted a smiling face using his own blood?”

“Yes. I later learned that the killer who murdered Patrick’s family always left behind a smiling face – I think law enforcement types call it a “signature”. Patrick found his family like that. Cut open and posed in the daughter’s bedroom, with the smiling face on the wall.” 

Lisbon sucked in a quiet breath. Jane had described his time in the hospital as “a bad patch”. Selby was shaking her head sadly and speaking to Miller as though they were the only two people of importance in the courtroom. At that moment not even Jane was there to listen to them discussing before the world hat Jane had called his shame. 

Lisbon watched Jane’s slumped frame, wishing she could put her arm around his shoulder and assure him that it didn’t matter in the least what they said – he was still the same good, caring man in her book. But she knew Jane would reject such sentiment, as he would also probably shrug off the physical comfort.

“I can only imagine what that would have done to him.” Selby remarked.

Miller said “I don’t have to imagine, I know what it did to him.”

“How long was Patrick in your care?”

“Eighteen weeks. He began to respond to talk therapy once I put him on the appropriate medications and alternate therapy.”

“Anti-anxiety drugs?”

“Yes, supplemented with two others that had proved effective in similar cases. Patrick began responding and he finally left the hospital with a clean bill of health.”

“Forgive me for bringing it up, Doctor Miller, but if I do not, my colleague will so I must. What were these other therapies you spoke of that you used with Patrick Jane? Were there any that were, how shall I say, controversial?”

Sophie Miller flushed red. “Yes. As I said before at the time I believed Patrick would not respond with traditional drugs or the common therapies so I instituted a treatment called Accentuated Experiential Physical Psychotherapy.”*

“And what is” Selby mimicked the new and unusual terms “Accentuated Experiential Physical Psychotherapy?”

“It is a technique that incorporates the elements of what we term Secure Attachment. It is a talk and physical therapy focusing on the mutual exchange of all deeply-seated emotions using methods that encourage mind/emotion/body awareness and incorporating pleasant physical exchange in each session.”

“And how does one “incorporate pleasant physical exchange” during a session?” 

“Not the way one might think.” Miller underlined. “There is no sexual element to it what-so-ever. And each patient must agree to it in writing prior to the first session. It involves the touching of hands, parts of the face –“

“-You mean the hands and face of the patient and the hands and face of the therapist?”

“Exactly. It is not a clinical description but Patrick had mentally and emotionally removed himself from life. In order to gain his trust and his willingness to return to the whole, flawed human race, I had to reach him with something more than words. And as I said before, Patrick was an emotionally demonstrative man prior to his trauma – which good quality needed to be reached and drawn upon, to, if you will, bring him back to life again.”

“And all that accomplished through touching?”

“Yes.”

“Can you demonstrate to us this touching therapy for the benefit of the jury? Give us an example?”

Miller, prepared for it, said “Yes. Agent Rigsby has agreed to help me.”

Lisbon turned to stare at her employee as he stood up to make his way to the front of the courtroom. 

He whispered. “Sorry, boss, I wasn’t allowed to discuss it with anybody.”

Rigsby took his place in the middle of the room and Doctor Miller left the witness box to stand opposite him. Only ten inches or so of space was left between their bodies. Miller took both of his hands in hers and said “Please listen to my instructions Agent Rigsby, this will be very simple.”

He nodded. “Sure.”

“Lean forward a few inches.” Miller told him.

When Rigsby did so, Miller did the same until their foreheads touched. “Now while in this position.” Miller explained to the entire courtroom, “The patient – in this case Patrick - and I would just talk. Whatever was on his mind, whatever he might be feeling, no matter what it was, we would discuss it while we touched hands and heads.”

Selby and the audience watched the exchange. At first observation, it was clearly not sexual, but after a second look, it was obviously intimate. It had to be. Who goes around bumping foreheads with their doctor?

Miller leaned away and Rigsby did the same, putting distance between their bodies. Miller nodded her thanks to Rigsby and returned to the witness box, but her eyes never left Jane. Rigsby returned to his seat beside Lisbon.

Miller was explaining to the jury and the audience. “It is a therapy designed to encourage mentally or emotionally detached patients to connect physically with another human being, and to learn to trust that connection. The touching brings a kind of physical comfort to the patient as well which studies have shown is crucial to emotional healing. Babies for example who are raised without physical affection become withdrawn, anxious, ill - even psychotic. The physical touch therapy also helps to bring out the grief, the fear and the anger - all the unhealthily repressed emotions people who experience a terrible trauma, people like Patrick, tend to want to hide away from. 

“After extreme trauma such as war, a car accident...” Miller looked at Patrick, “or the loss of your entire family, having to feel those overpowering emotions can be like a second trauma on top of the first one. People who go through such stresses can feel like they themselves have been in some way destroyed. The therapy helps patients to understand that the emotions associated with the trauma will not destroy what’s left of their soul, so-to-speak. It teaches them to adapt to what’s happened and move on.”

Miller underlined it to Selby. “In order to help Patrick heal I first needed to get him to feel again. Nothing else was working.”

“And did this therapy work?” Selby asked.

“With Patrick, yes.”

“But it does not work with all patients?” 

“No. That’s why it is still in the experimental stage. Greenlawn approved it and Patrick, once he was talking, agreed to try it.”

“It did work?” Selby asked again.

“Yes. After four and half months Patrick was discharged. Next I heard he was working with the CBI and doing very well.”

“And what would be your assessment of Patrick Jane now?”

“I would say that he has completely recovered. He’s working in a high stress occupation and has achieved everything one might expect from a brilliant, success-driven person. I’m proud of him.”

Selby nodded her approval. “Thank-you, Doctor Miller.” Turning to Williams - “Counsellor? Your witness...”

CBI

Part 5 soon.   
* Accentuated Experiential Physical Psychotherapy is NOT a real therapy. I got an idea from the Web, and made the rest up.


End file.
